Back At Children's Hospital......

After 2 days of Little Bug's 1st camping trip to Wenatchee, we were airlifted back to Children's Hospital yesterday. He had been doing great and tolerating the warm weather just fine, not to mention all the love he was getting from his Grandma and Aunties, but something changed throughout the night on Thursday. He was cranky and fussy all night long and when the sun came up on Friday morning Little Bug just couldn't pull himself out of it. He was crying so hard that he couldn't hardly breathe and then his temperature started to rise. I knew we couldn't head back over the pass with him this bad. I literally felt like he would not survive. Randy and I prayed that the Lord would give us discernment and so we took him immediately to the Wenatchee Hospital ER and they were in a tailspin. They were all incredibly kind, but clearly not equipped to handle a pediatric crisis such as this. They were swarming around us like bees to honey and finally made the decision to airlift Connor and I to Children's here in Seattle. They actually had the Flight For Life people coming for another child, but they stablized that child and sent Connor instead. From the hospital in Wenatchee we took a "Lights & Siren's" ambulance ride to the airport, boarded a leer jet and sped to Boeing Field. From there, we climbed on board another ambulance and fought the Seattle SeaFair traffic and finally arrived here at Children's yesterday at 3:00pm. We were greeted in the ER by all our familiar ICU doctors and nurses and they saw that Little Bug was in significant distress. His temp at risen to 106.5 and they were frantically trying to get him cooled off before settling him into his ICU room. He was working so hard to breathe that his respiration rate was consistantly in the 100's and his heart rate was hovering in the low 200's. After many attempts, they finally got IV access with a head poke late in the afternoon and were able to pump him full of fluids. He is stablized now but still fighting the fever, on the c-pap, oxygen and also fighting a terrible cough and yucky poops!!!

Randy headed over the pass after we were airlifted yesterday and met us here at the hospital last night. After a short visit he had to head home because he left on another military stage this afternoon. He had such a difficult time leaving us with Connor so sick. Please pray that the Lord give Randy the peace of mind that he needs to effectively fly his airplane and accomplish his mission. They haven't given me a time frame or an outlook of how long we will be here, but they know Connor's history so they aren't getting rid of us any time soon, I'm sure. In my heart, I believe that this emergency trip has definately turned the course of Connor's treatment. I think that everyone finally concurs that Little Bug needs his heart repaired sooner rather than later. My gutt feeling is that they are going to wait for whatever is currently going on to subside and then they are going to find their window of opportunity to do his heart surgery. It is going to be very risky and we need to pray like crazy that Little Bug fights the fight of his life. They are worried and so are we that his little lungs might not be able to fight that hard, but we know that Connor has the fight of Jesus in him and we know that God is going to protect our little guy. Please continue to pray for Connor. He is very weak at the moment and needs the healing touch of our heavenly father to come over his little body.

I am exhausted tonight so I signed up for one of the ICU sleeping rooms and I just got the call that one was available so I am off to get a good nights sleep. I must remember now that not only does Little Bug need mama to be strong, but so does Itty Bitty Baby Bug growing inside of me. Our nurse is great this evening so I am not worried to leave him in her capable care. I will update more tomorrow with reflections of our experience over the past couple of days.

Thanks for all your words of encouragement and congratulations for the new baby on the way. Continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy for mama but most of all for Little Bug to get strong for his surgery.

All our Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

PS ~ We made the neatest connection with a family yesterday that we are so excited about. God is so good and He knows exactly who to put in our path at the right time. John and Lori, you are awesome and we loved meeting little Ian. Get strong little fella, you're our hero!!!!

Little Bug's Got A Secret..............

Can you see Little Bug saying, "Sssshhhhh....I've got a secret!!"

Connor's just about bursting at the seams with a secret. He's been wanting to shout it from the mountain tops since Saturday night, but Daddy and Mama told him he had to wait. He's been so disappointed that he couldn't say anything because this is REALLY BIG NEWS for him. He's spent so much time being sick and in the hospital he couldn't wait to hear that he was going to have a new job to uphold in the family. We personally think he is going to do a fabulous job at his new duties. Oh, I bet you're all wondering, "What is this new job Little Bug has to do????" Well in Connor's words he wants to tell all of his family and friends that he is going to be a Big Brother!!!! Yup, that's right, a big brother!!!!!!

We are thrilled to announce the news that we are expecting baby #2. We just found out and we are absolutely ecstatic. We still have yet to see the doctor for the "official" word, but hey, a plus sign is a plus sign, right??? We would respectfully ask for your most earnest prayers that God would touch this new little baby in a special way and that health and wholeness would surround this new "Little Bugaboo" growing inside of mama's tummy. We are trusting the Lord for a great pregnancy and a healthy baby to arrive sometime early March.

If we didn't have the chance to contact you personally, please forgive us but the information got out there sooner than we expected. We will try to catch up with personal phone calls in the coming days. As for now, we will continue with our great excitement and we will anticipate the arrival of a new Little Bug to love.

Lovebug Hugs,
Randy, Lori, Little Bug and "Itty Bitty Wee" Little Bugaboo